Asian American Female

MJ

Come here to Japan and call yourself 'Japanese' and see their reaction (a gaijin is just a gaijin- 2-sei or not).

I disagree. I am a Japanese-American female from the deep South. I live in Japan and the people refer to me as Japanese, not American. I have to remind them that I am American. Perhaps if you learned keigo you would have the same experience.

Keigo- yoku shiteiru...Nihon ni mo jyu-nen de insundeiru (this ain't keigo, but I certainly know how to use it).

You're an exception for some reason, but here in small-town Japan (not a big city in Kyushu), you'd still be a gaijin...sorry to be direct, but grow a family and biz here in Japan- not just the few year JET-life thing, and you'll see the difference. It's when you tell them that you're staying for the duration that everything changes...

Since you're Japanese-American you have some DNA priviledges here (unfortunately, that's how the Japanese see it), but on a long-term basis you're just a gaijin. I hope that you see it in your time here- it would help to make the Japanese more aware of their growing discrimination against foreigners...

I'm a Taiwanese. I just want to add my 2 cents about this "intolerant" issue.

The ethnicity diversity of most Asian countries (perhaps excluding singapore) are simply much more homogenous than America. 95% of Taiwanese are Han, for example. Therefore the identification of "Taiwanese" or "chinese" or "japanese" refers not only to an ethnicity or nationality, but also to a typical culture. This is very different from the definition of an "american." Having the DNA of these countries doesn't guarantee you a Taiwanese or Chinese or Japanese if you are not part of the culture.

In that sense geezer is correct of saying that Asian countries are less tolerant to oversea descendents than America. However I think America is more of an (welcomed) extreme in this respect than a standard.

I'm 25% Chinese (it's about 50/50 whether or not people others think I'm Asian) and I grew up in England, I would definitely agree with all those that said America is much more tolerant. I find this to be the case not just with white people, but also asians of my age. In England, the white kids (Brits) hated me because I looked different etc, asians of my age thought I was an enigma and adult asians really didn't want to admit my existence. It's that reason which makes me scared to visit Asia.